Doctor Who Series 4 Episodes 1-3

The first episode is “Partners in Crime”. So once again we are back on Earth. Donna, who we met in “Runaway Bride”, now wishes she had taken up the Doctor on his offer to go traveling with him. She has spent the time since hopping from job to job and investigating strange occurrences in the hopes of finding him. Her mother doesn’t understand. Her grandfather, Wilfred who we saw in “Voyage of the Damned”, does. Little does Donna know that she and the Doctor are investigating the same company who is promoting a weight-loss pill where the fat literally walks away, as Donna sees when she talks to a friend about it. The “fat” is really tiny aliens. Unfortunately, in an emergency the owner of the company (who is also an alien) can cause the process to kick into overdrive and the little critters use up all the host’s body. The Doctor and Donna finally meet at the company – where they are promptly discovered because it is after hours and they shouldn’t be there, even though the head alien is interrogating a reporter she also caught. It turns out that the head alien is acting as a nanny. The species the little critters belong to lost their breeding planet. She chose Earth as a replacement, knowing it is illegal. So after much chasing, the Doctor manages to stop the process with Donna’s help. As for the baby aliens who are already there, the parents have arrived to pick them up. Of course the parents know what the nanny did was illegal too, so they end up killing her. The Doctor did offer to help – she refused. The Doctor agrees to take Donna on as his companion. She asks a lady they pass to give her car keys to her mother when she comes. After they leave we see the lady is Rose, and she disappears . . . The Doctor and Donna fly pass where Wilfred is stargazing^^;

The second episode is “The Fires of Pompeii”.

The Doctor’s first stop with Donna is ancient Rome. Well, actually it is Pompeii. And it happens to be right before destruction day. The only problem is none of the oracles or spiritual leaders are predicting disaster. Donna makes waves trying to warn people. They meet a nice family. The daughter is to become a priestess. They learn her arm is turning to stone. All the priestesses have the sight. So does the town leader, who is also stone. Donna gets captured by the priestesses and is almost sacrificed, but the Doctor rescues her. They escape and make it to Mt. Vesuvius. There they find aliens whose planet has also been destroyed preparing to change all of humanity into themselves. The Doctor realizes that Vesuvius won’t erupt as long as the alien machine is going. To save humanity he destroys the machine, triggering the destruction of Pompeii. The Doctor and Donna escape. He tells her they can’t do anything to change things since this is a fixed point in time, but she convinces him to go back and at least save the one family. After watching the destruction of the city, the family makes their way to Rome, where they worship the Doctor and Donna as their household gods.

The third episode is “Planet of the Ood”.

The Doctor and Donna go to visit the homeworld of the Ood, who we have met before. The Ood are still quite passive. Donna doesn’t like the way the Ood are treated and the Doctor does agree they are unusual enough to warrant more investigation. The Ood are almost slaves on their own planet, sold off by a corporation. Some Ood unexpectedly turn violent and rabid. After some poking around, the Doctor discovers that the Ood have an exterior brain which the corporation cuts off and replaces with a speech instrument which destroys the Ood individuality and makes them subserviant. But there is another part missing. The Doctor and Donna are captured, but then the Ood rebel. The compound is evacuated, but the Doctor and Donna follow the leader to a building where they discover a huge brain – the final link in the Ood collective consciousness. A circle of power encircles the brain – this is how they have been controlling the Ood as well. A scientist there is secretly pro-Ood and infiltrated the place and has been lowering the power. He is killed. It also turns out Ood Sigma has been altering the leader’s hair tonic turning him into an Ood. The Doctor and Donna undo the power circle freeing the Ood. The Ood are forever grateful and will sing of the Doctor-Donna, but Ood Sigma also tells the Doctor his song may be ending soon.